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Sentence Skills, Form A book cover
Sentence Skills, Form A, 7/e
John Langan, Atlantic Cape Community College
Practice in Effective Writing

Key Terms


adequate details  details that provide enough support for a topic sentence: to support a claim about a friend's habitual tardiness, for example, more than one example should be provided in order to provide adequate support
general subject  a broad topic, such as "marriage"; in prewriting, writers often begin here, and then narrow their topic to a limited subject (such as "honeymoon"), and finally to a topic sentence (such as "A honeymoon is perhaps the worst way to begin a marriage").
generalities  ineffective support for a topic sentence(e.g., "People are often messy"): specific details (e.g., "Teenagers toss their gum wrappers to the floor, and young parents allow their toddlers to shower their seatmates with popcorn ") should be provided
limited subject  a topic, such as "honeymoon" that is narrower than a general topic, but broader than a topic sentence (such as "A honeymoon is perhaps the worst way to begin a marriage").
specific details  concrete, specific evidence (e.g., "Teenagers toss their gum wrappers to the floor, and young parents allow their toddlers to shower their seatmates with popcorn ") that provides support for a topic sentence
announcement  simply stating the topic ("The subject of this paper will be my parents"), rather than a claim or assertion about the topic ("Parents who spank their children are guilty of a serious error in childrearing").
more than one idea  too many ideas to be adequately developed in a single essay; often two topic sentences in one (e.g. "My parents helped me grow in important ways, although in other respects I was limited").
too broad  a common error in writing a topic sentence: making a statement too broad to be supported adequately in a student essay. Ex.: "My parents have been very influential in my life."
too narrow  a common error in writing a topic sentence: making a statement so narrow that no support is necessary. Often a statement of fact (not acceptable as a thesis). Ex.: "My parents had only one child."








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